Combat Flight Sims: The Good, the Bad, and the FUGLY
by Blacktail[/b]
- Chapter 2 -

Here's another round of combat flight sim reviews!

The Good: Air combat, NAMCO, PS1
"You are the cream of the world's air forces!"

This game is the title that brought console combat flight sims into the 32-bit age.

The Ace Combat series games (the first is only called "Air Combat" in the US; elsewhere, it's named "Ace Combat") are not "authentic" flight sims, in that the performance of the aircraft and weapons are not modeled *precisely* after the real thing, and huge amounts of missiles and enemy aircraft are involved in almost every battle --- but they definitely has a high-end flight sim "feel" to them. Overall, the combat scenarios in this series are by design more representational than realistic, but by no means do they look and feel like anything other than real air battles.
In any case, it's a solid formula, and the success and long development run of the Ace Combat series is no accident.

The background story of the first game has very few tangible details. Basically, the player is one of several top gun fighter pilots from all over the world, who have been hired as mercenaries by the government of some country (the name of which is never revealed). The job of this make-shift air force is to retake the country from a HUGE rebel military force, who has somehow amassed an arsenal that even the Pentagon would be jealous of.
A trope that will repeat itself over and over throughout the Ace Combat series is that the legitimate government has only a single military base left, and it's on a distant island. The player spends the first several missions defending it and/or securing it from future attacks.

The graphics of Air Combat are pretty crude by today's standards, but boast many special attributes never previously seen in a console-based flight sim (at least, as far as I'm aware), such as dithered skies, transparent clouds, and textured polygons.

The sound and voice-acting are pretty cut-and-paste as well, but the music is incredible. Outstanding soundtracks would be the cornerstone of every subsequent Ace Combat title as well (unless you count the Game Boy Advance titles, which are vertically-scrolling Shoot-Em-Ups). My personal favorites of Air Combat's soundtrack are "Head First", "Heavy Hearted", and "Night and Day".

Air Combat is also a winner in gameplay. As you have the role of a 'merc fighter pilot, you get money for every mission you complete, and every enemy weapon and vehicle you destroy. This is used not only to repair damage your aircraft suffers in battle, but also to buy new aircraft as they become available, and eventually to even hire wingmen to back you up in your missions.
Curiously, only one mission is actually flown at night, while all the others are daylight missions in almost perfectly clear weather. This is something of a disappointment, because night and/or poor weather missions add variety, and also because the atmosphere of that single night sortie was done very well by NAMCO.
There is also quite a variety of missions in Air Combat, including interceptions of fighter and bomber groups, air strikes on mines, oil fields, and port facilities, attacks on naval groups, an escort mission, at least one reconnaissance mission, and a couple of "canyon runs"... just to name a few.

Speaking of variety, there's also a lot of playable aircraft, including the F-4E Phantom II, Mig-29 Fulcrum, F-14 Tomcat, A-10A Thunderbolt II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-117 Nighthawk, Tornado IDS, JAS-39A Gripen, Rafale A, F/A-18C Hornet, Eurofighter 2000 (this was before it was named the "Typhoon"), Mig-31 Foxhound, F-15C Eagle, Su-27 Flanker (though strangely, the game's 3D model is of an Su-33), YF-23 Black Widow II, and the F-22 (the ORIGINAL F-22, from before 1997 --- not the F-22A Raptor!).
Naturally, all of these aircraft all have very different performance stats, which is rated by Power (thrust/weight), Stability (pitching speed), Offense (hitting power of the aircraft's gun and missiles), Mobility (banking speed), Defense (ability to withstand damage), and Stealth (this only applies to the F-117, YF-23, and F-22). These are very crude performance parameters compared to most flight sims (as well as subsequent Ace Combat games), but remember that this game is meant to be representational --- not fully-realistic.
Anyhow, their different stats make some aircraft suitable for some missions, but not others. The A-10 for example is easily the most powerful ground attack aircraft available in the game, while the F-15 is one of the best choices for air-to-air combat, and the JAS-39 is a good choice for dealing with a mixed air and ground threat.
All of the aircraft carry huge amounts of missiles, only one type of which is featured in the game (though it's used against both air and surface targets), with the more expensive aircraft carrying more of them, and a gun with an obscene 10000-round ammo capacity. Those are also the only weapons you get to use.

I only have beef with two aspects of this game. First, the aircraft models have no animations, so elevators, stabilizers, thrust nozzles, and variable-geometry wings are never seen to move. The animation for the exhaust of all the aircraft is pretty budget as well.
Second, all the aircraft are painted in the SAME "camouflage" scheme, which is incredibly gaudy. It will hurt your eyes.

There are several games that are similar in many respects which have sprung-up since Air Combat, but this is the game that started the craze... and NAMCO did it right the first time around.


...the Bad...
Bogey Dead 6 --- Asmik --- PS1
"Bite his head off!"

Remember Asmik's Lethal Skies from my first review? This game was it's forerunner, and an attempt to steal some of the Ace Combat series' thunder; and it fell just as far from the mark as Lethal Skies did, as well.

BD6 has an almost stereotypical selection of playable aircraft; the F-4E Phantom II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-14D Tomcat, F/A-18C Hornet, F-15E Strike Eagle, and F-22A "Superstar". Yes, the game actually calls the F-22 the "Superstar". I sh!# you not.

And guess where all of the enemy's aircraft are from? Russia! The only exceptions are a stolen F-16 you have to shoot down in the first mission, and some stolen A-10s and B-52s you have to shoot down in a later mission (what the hell is wrong with the USAF's security forces?). Not just their aircraft either, but also their helicopters, tanks, and warships to name a few.

All of the aircraft have the same weapons; an M61A1 Vulcan 20mm autocannon, AIM-9M Sidewinder short-range AAMs, AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range AAMs, AGM-65E Maverick short-range AGMs, and AGM-88 HARM medium-range AGMs.
That's it. Despite the F-14 having a long-ranged AAM in real life, and all of these aircraft (with the possible exception of the F-4E) being able to use various long-range AGMs, none are featured. There are no rockets, no guided bombs, no UN-guided bombs, and no submunition dispensers, except possibly in use by the enemy.

The music in BD6 varies from pretty good, to downright awful, depending on the music track, but the sound is first-rate. Explosions, gunfire, and jet exhaust all sound convincing (though not actually *authentic*, mind you).
The voice acting is actually excellent, but the script... oh god, the script. I'll never be able to rid my memory of such insightful advice as, "Fire! Bite his head off!". No, really --- that's part of the game's actual dialogue, which you hear almost every time you engage an enemy aircraft (and here you thought "Do a Barrel Roll" was annoying).

The actual gameplay isn't that bad, but unless you have a high-res, large-screen TV, you HAVE to zoom-in on the HUD to be able to see and kill your targets effectively --- and doing so means you can't see any of your other instruments, including your *radar screen*.
Damage however, is realistically modeled; a single hit is highly unlikely to shoot you down, but the avionics on your aircraft will take some kind of damage. The result is a reduction of capability in your radar, instruments, weapons, propulsion, steering systems, fuel supply, structural integrity, and so on. If one of these takes a bit too much damage, you'll lose it; and if your aircraft's structural integrity reaches zero, it will basically blow up.

So, in short, Asmik's "Ace Combat Killer" missed it's mark. It's not really a *bad* game, but it's not particularly good, either; something that Asmik faithfully replicated in their later PS2 game, "Lethal Skies" (which you read about last time).

...and the FUGLY
Eagle One: Harrier Attack --- Infogrames --- Sony PS1
*sound of your aircraft exploding*

This game was one of my biggest disappointments. It's nothing more than $12 I'll never get back, and not a single store that would offer me a more than a dollar or two to buy it back. It's incredible to think that Infogrames of all companies developed this travesty, and also that it's release date was repeatedly pushed forward until it hit the market several years after it's first promised release date --- and it STILL ended up sucking this much!

The story is that "terrorists" (whose identity, origin, ideals, intent, and demands are never mentioned, not even in the manual) have stolen a Russian aircraft carrier (how?), and have invaded and conquered the Hawaiian Islands (HOW?!). Neither the game --- nor the manual --- ever explain who they are, what they want, why they invaded Hawaii of all places, why they have unique weapons never seen before, or why the US Marines are only sending ONE FRICKIN' HARRIER to fight them all at once, and the Army, Navy, and Air Force have no direct involvement.
It makes no damned sense at all!

In certain missions, the player is actually given *different aircraft* to tackle certain objectives. These include an F-16 and an A-10, which raises an interesting question; how many Marine Aviators are qualified to fly an F-16 and an A-10, as well as their own organization's AV-8B Harrier IIs?

The sound in Harrier Attack is forgettable, but the music is bland as hell. If you ever have the misfortune of hearing it, you'll want to forget it too.

The gameplay, however, is by far the worst feature. The player's aircraft not only doesn't look very much like a real AV-8B Harrier II, it doesn't even FLY like one either. It's handling is atrocious in horizontal flight, it's not fast enough to avoid being shot to pieces all the time, and the controls and HUD are utter crap.
Transitioning to vertical flight is even worse. Not only is maneuverability nigh-nonexistent while transitioning (i.e., you'll take that many more direct hits), and you can only transition FULLY into vertical or horizontal flight, so you have *nowhere near* the control or adaptability of a real Harrier. The transition takes nearly 5 seconds to complete, too.
Vertical flight is worst of all, because all it accomplishes is getting you killed VERY quickly, because you're a near-stationary bullseye. It wasn't idle talk when the US Air Force came up with the slogan, "Speed is life".

Harrier Attack's weapons are all mediocre and VERY hard to use, but the worst offender is the AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile, which in this game has NO GUIDANCE AT ALL. No, I am *not* blowing smoke in your face, the "Harpoon" in this game has NO GUIDANCE --- and not only that, but you also have to get within about 500 yards of your target to use it! You also don't get to use is until you're nearly at the end of the story.
It's a wonder that the Harpoon's manufacturer didn't sue Infogrames for Libel.

Is there more to the game than that, you ask? Of course there is; and all of THAT sucks too. I still want my $12 back.